LINING UP for a seafood snack at the Barnacle are beachgoers who have been filling the Craigville Beach parking lots to capacity on weekends.

Craigville stands set to make 2010 best year

Twenty-ten is on track to being the best business summer Roger Ghanem has had in the four years he’s been feeding Craigville Beach bathers, but neither the town nor the economy are responsible. It’s mostly been the weather.

“So far, so good,” Ghanem said outside the Craigville Beach Grill directly across from the long stretch of expansive beach. The roadside eatery is separated from the beach by a relatively thin ribbon of roadway flanked by mounds of grassy dunes, hot-top parking lots, decorative pilings that substitute as a fence, sun-dappled cars, a seaside blanketed with a kaleidoscope of colored blankets, bathing suits, umbrellas and varied hues of red, white and tan bodies

“We have a lot more sun and heat this year and everybody should be happy. Last year the weather wasn’t so good and everybody was complaining,” Ghanem said as he unloaded his white SUV of fresh products for the shore-side restaurant.

Helping the bottom line besides the weather is Ghanem’s takeover of a former competitor’s lease next door at the “Barnacle,” which has allowed him to differentiate the menu at each venue as operator of both.

The Grill was Ghanem’s original start-up, and, his being from Lebanese extraction, offers a menu spiced with local and international flavor. “Our best seller at The Grill is the chicken shish-ka-bob,“ he said, not to mention the falafel, another Middle Eastern favorite beating out American favorites, the ubiquitous hot dog and hamburger.

Seafood - and what is the shore without a taste of its bounty - is concentrated at the Barnacle where the menu swims with fish and where the lobster salad roll, “not just a little hot dog bun but a big roll,” said Ghanem, is the best seller.

As have a legion of other businessmen in Barnstable, Ghanem couldn't resist complaining about the town's recent enforcement of the sign laws. "There is too much town," he said, much like some political opinion believes there is too much federal government. He said the town had him remove an A-sign by the side of the road and he really couldn't figure out why.

"This is a seasonal business and we have to make a living," he said. "Someplace else, they look the other way, they are flexible and try to work with you."

[The town is looking at the sign laws as a result of complaints.]

The season is so good so far, and the substantial available parking so stressed, Ghanem said, that people have offered him $25 to park in one of his three or four spaces next to the The Grill. "But I don't do parking," he said.

The Grill is a little more than the average roadside food stand. Besides a fairly eclectic menu of beachy foods like subs, burgers, frankfurters, ice cream, hot and cold sandwiches, chips, French fires and the like, there is an indoor counter as well flanked by items one might want at the beach, like sunglasses and sunscreen.

The Barnacle's menu highlights foods from the sea, such as shrimp, scallops, lobster, clams, chowder, calamari, some broiled fish and some fried, some in sandwiches.

The Grill is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and The Barnacle from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.